Fred Meyer and Harris Teeter Kroger phones?

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omnisuperstore
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Fred Meyer and Harris Teeter Kroger phones?

Post by omnisuperstore »

Has Fred Meyer replaced the ROLM telephone systems with the standard Kroger Cisco IP platform?

Additionally, anyone know why Harris Teeter has stuck onto their antiquated phone systems with separate microphones for paging at check stands? They were never replaced with Kroger’s former Nortel BCM phone system rollout....I am curious why they have not updated to Kroger’s current standard Cisco IP telephony platform either?
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Re: Fred Meyer and Harris Teeter Kroger phones?

Post by storewanderer »

Harris Teeter is on Kroger's cash registers and that is really it. They are still on their old systems for private label (even redesigning the old private label as we speak into designs that are NOT Kroger designs...), shelf tags, merchandising, perimeter, ads, and basically everything else. Some of those Harris Teeter private label items are coming out of Kroger plants, though.

They do have a few random Simple Truth items sitting around but HT Organics is much more common. HT private label is still in full swing even in the drug category.

Kroger has opted to not ruin Harris Teeter with its current (past couple years) round of mass standardization to the Kroger, Smiths, Ralphs, Frys, Fred Meyer, Dillons, etc. banners that has been in my view not good.

Harris Teeter must make a ton of money to continue so independently.
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Re: Fred Meyer and Harris Teeter Kroger phones?

Post by omnisuperstore »

Thank you, I’ve seen those not so good changes here at Mariano’s in Chicago.
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Re: Fred Meyer and Harris Teeter Kroger phones?

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storewanderer wrote: June 1st, 2019, 11:29 pm Harris Teeter is on Kroger's cash registers and that is really it. They are still on their old systems for private label (even redesigning the old private label as we speak into designs that are NOT Kroger designs...), shelf tags, merchandising, perimeter, ads, and basically everything else. Some of those Harris Teeter private label items are coming out of Kroger plants, though.

They do have a few random Simple Truth items sitting around but HT Organics is much more common. HT private label is still in full swing even in the drug category.

Kroger has opted to not ruin Harris Teeter with its current (past couple years) round of mass standardization to the Kroger, Smiths, Ralphs, Frys, Fred Meyer, Dillons, etc. banners that has been in my view not good.

Harris Teeter must make a ton of money to continue so independently.
I worked there for about 4 years, through the merger and up until a few months ago. We had almost no contact with Kroger corporate at all (other than a store visit by Kroger execs shortly after the deal closed). Everything is handled by the corporate office in Charlotte.

From what I was told, HT got a lot of it's private label products from Kroger even before the merger, so nothing is really being "replaced". Simple Truth organic apples come from Ranier, so we didn't even know anything was different until we opened the box.

As the poster above said, the big integration was in the POS system. HT's old one was buggy and prone to crashing a lot, it seemed like the Fujitsu techs were in every week to fix a unit. It also wasn't fully compatible with Starbucks rewards cards. They had to be run like a check, feeding a blank piece of paper through the check printer, and taking the card number down on paper to submit later (customers were also aggravated that they couldn't earn Starbucks points through HT Starbucks).

HT is very profitable, that's why Kroger bought it. If you read the quarterly statements, HT is often what keeps the stock up. They haven't been so dumb (yet) to kill their golden goose.
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Re: Fred Meyer and Harris Teeter Kroger phones?

Post by storewanderer »

cw06 wrote: August 16th, 2019, 10:24 am
storewanderer wrote: June 1st, 2019, 11:29 pm Harris Teeter is on Kroger's cash registers and that is really it. They are still on their old systems for private label (even redesigning the old private label as we speak into designs that are NOT Kroger designs...), shelf tags, merchandising, perimeter, ads, and basically everything else. Some of those Harris Teeter private label items are coming out of Kroger plants, though.

They do have a few random Simple Truth items sitting around but HT Organics is much more common. HT private label is still in full swing even in the drug category.

Kroger has opted to not ruin Harris Teeter with its current (past couple years) round of mass standardization to the Kroger, Smiths, Ralphs, Frys, Fred Meyer, Dillons, etc. banners that has been in my view not good.

Harris Teeter must make a ton of money to continue so independently.
I worked there for about 4 years, through the merger and up until a few months ago. We had almost no contact with Kroger corporate at all (other than a store visit by Kroger execs shortly after the deal closed). Everything is handled by the corporate office in Charlotte.

From what I was told, HT got a lot of it's private label products from Kroger even before the merger, so nothing is really being "replaced". Simple Truth organic apples come from Ranier, so we didn't even know anything was different until we opened the box.

As the poster above said, the big integration was in the POS system. HT's old one was buggy and prone to crashing a lot, it seemed like the Fujitsu techs were in every week to fix a unit. It also wasn't fully compatible with Starbucks rewards cards. They had to be run like a check, feeding a blank piece of paper through the check printer, and taking the card number down on paper to submit later (customers were also aggravated that they couldn't earn Starbucks points through HT Starbucks).

HT is very profitable, that's why Kroger bought it. If you read the quarterly statements, HT is often what keeps the stock up. They haven't been so dumb (yet) to kill their golden goose.
I wonder if they have an agreement to keep Harris Teeter as is, in terms of its corporate structure, for a certain time period. I believe they had some kind of agreement like that with Jay C and that was why Jay C remained a stand alone division for as long as it did (it got absorbed by Louisville a while ago I believe).
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Re: Fred Meyer and Harris Teeter Kroger phones?

Post by cw06 »

storewanderer wrote: August 16th, 2019, 9:18 pm
cw06 wrote: August 16th, 2019, 10:24 am
storewanderer wrote: June 1st, 2019, 11:29 pm Harris Teeter is on Kroger's cash registers and that is really it. They are still on their old systems for private label (even redesigning the old private label as we speak into designs that are NOT Kroger designs...), shelf tags, merchandising, perimeter, ads, and basically everything else. Some of those Harris Teeter private label items are coming out of Kroger plants, though.

They do have a few random Simple Truth items sitting around but HT Organics is much more common. HT private label is still in full swing even in the drug category.

Kroger has opted to not ruin Harris Teeter with its current (past couple years) round of mass standardization to the Kroger, Smiths, Ralphs, Frys, Fred Meyer, Dillons, etc. banners that has been in my view not good.

Harris Teeter must make a ton of money to continue so independently.
I worked there for about 4 years, through the merger and up until a few months ago. We had almost no contact with Kroger corporate at all (other than a store visit by Kroger execs shortly after the deal closed). Everything is handled by the corporate office in Charlotte.

From what I was told, HT got a lot of it's private label products from Kroger even before the merger, so nothing is really being "replaced". Simple Truth organic apples come from Ranier, so we didn't even know anything was different until we opened the box.

As the poster above said, the big integration was in the POS system. HT's old one was buggy and prone to crashing a lot, it seemed like the Fujitsu techs were in every week to fix a unit. It also wasn't fully compatible with Starbucks rewards cards. They had to be run like a check, feeding a blank piece of paper through the check printer, and taking the card number down on paper to submit later (customers were also aggravated that they couldn't earn Starbucks points through HT Starbucks).

HT is very profitable, that's why Kroger bought it. If you read the quarterly statements, HT is often what keeps the stock up. They haven't been so dumb (yet) to kill their golden goose.
I wonder if they have an agreement to keep Harris Teeter as is, in terms of its corporate structure, for a certain time period. I believe they had some kind of agreement like that with Jay C and that was why Jay C remained a stand alone division for as long as it did (it got absorbed by Louisville a while ago I believe).
I think there was a 5 year agreement. Kroger wasn't looking to absorb HT though, they wanted to learn from HT's operational processes and apply them to the rest of the company. Things like clicklist, and some fresh foods marketing have made their way out to Kroger as a whole. HT execs have been promoted up to Kroger divisions, so Kroger is getting "Teeterized" a little.
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Re: Fred Meyer and Harris Teeter Kroger phones?

Post by storewanderer »

cw06 wrote: August 24th, 2019, 12:31 pm

I think there was a 5 year agreement. Kroger wasn't looking to absorb HT though, they wanted to learn from HT's operational processes and apply them to the rest of the company. Things like clicklist, and some fresh foods marketing have made their way out to Kroger as a whole. HT execs have been promoted up to Kroger divisions, so Kroger is getting "Teeterized" a little.
The interesting thing is the HT private label program is run as a Topco program. They are in the process of redesigning some or all of the private label line (not to Kroger designs...) so it appears as if that is not going to change and move over to Kroger.

I wonder who's brands and program will go into that FL Ocado distribution center that is opening.

It would sure be nice if HT's store decor and interior store appearance would make its way to Kroger.
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Re: Fred Meyer and Harris Teeter Kroger phones?

Post by omnisuperstore »

So how about Harris Teeter getting Kroger’s typical new Cisco 7800 IP phones both in departments and at the checkout lanes and Harris Teeter can lose those old antiquated gooseneck microphones at each checkout?
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